Family roots...

When we stayed in Leeds we took a day trip to Barnsley. Nathan's Nana was born near here (in a small village called Ryhill) and her family moved to NZ when she was very young. Unfortunately it was a bank holiday when we visited so not much was open! This is the town hall. It had beautiful flower-beds in front of it in memory of the September 11 victims.

This is the River Liffey in Dublin. We really enjoyed the museums in this city and took a river cruise. If you look closely, you can see the red boat that we cruised on just about to pass under the bridge. This was taken on the only fine day we had!

As we drove south we stopped at Kildare. St Brigid's Cathedral is here, built on the site of the religious community she set up. Holy Family School, where Bronwyn worked, was founded by the Brigidine sisters.

We stayed in a cottage near Waterford for five days and visited the Waterford Crystal Factory. It was fascinating watching the glass being heated, blown, shaped and cut. Sorry, we didn't buy all your Christmas presents - they could have broken (along with the visa statement) as we trekked around Europe!

We also went to Blarney Castle near Cork. It didn't look like too much fun to bend over backwards, three storeys up so we didn't kiss the Blarney Stone. The gardens and rock close were nice so we didn't miss much.

Scottish highlights and more

A poem by Nathan, inspired by Loch Lomond.

Loch Lomond
Lady of lakes
With bush tumbling, falling into water’s edge
And shores punctuated by slithers of gold
Humans have erected monuments on your shores
But they are swamped by your beauty
With moody clouds reflected on your dark, sapphire blue face
You also reflect your Creator’s glory
Loch Lomond
Lady of lakes


This is Edinburgh Castle, possibly our favourite castle so far. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo had been held the weekend before just in front of here. We saw it on TV a few days ago and especially enjoyed the NZ Army Band’s performance. Have you ever seen a uniformed French horn player tiptoeing around to the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and then joining a haka?!! The castle itself had lots of nooks and crannies filled with history and it is still used as a military base for at least one regiment of soldiers.


Hadrian’s Wall once stretched 80 miles across the countryside to mark the border between “Britannia” (occupied by the Romans) and the “Barbarians” who lived in what is now mostly Scotland. It stood 6m high and 3m deep, with a small castle every mile (a mile castle) and lookout towers at various intervals in between. We walked about four miles alongside the wall (of which, about a third of the distance had visible remains of the wall) and visited a Roman Army museum and Birdoswald Fort. The latter had a very impressive presentation by a ‘Roman legionnaire’ who explained what dress, armour, weapons and general life was like during the 400-odd years of Roman occupation.

The Delights of York, Durham and Newcastle

Our journey has taken us up into the north-east of England to the cities of York, Durham and Newcastle.

We loved the city of York with its ‘small town’ feel, its cobbled streets, quaint houses and rich history. We “walked the walls” around the inner city, some dating from Roman times. If you’re ever in York we recommend you do this.




The York Minister is an impressive building, and under the church in the crypt and undercroft are excavations of Roman, Norman and present day foundations, as well as artifacts and silverware collected over the years.





Durham is a city with a lot of charm, and is marked out by Durham Castle and Cathedral towering above the rest of the city. On Sunday we attended sung Holy Communion at the Cathedral (a moving experiences but not one we’d want to be tied to each week), ate a scrummy meal at a local pub, and dodged the rain drops while browsing the shops.



Newcastle has its roots as an industrial city, and is well known for its boat building. There are not many signs of much boat building going on today, but there are many other attractions, including a number of superb art galleries. And if you’re in the area make sure you visit the ‘winking’ Millennium Bridge.

Look out for our next posting. Until then… take care.

London Highlights

Hi everyone,

This is a photo of us taken in Trafalgar Square, London. We're having a great time. So far we have seen some of the sights in London e.g. Buckingham Palace, London Zoo, British Museum. We're not struggling too much to make ourselves understood, although Nathan did have some trouble ordering hummus in a pub (Oh, yi mean HOOmus!) The weather has been very warm but fine.

Here are a couple of photos:

Reading Room, British Museum

Big Ben